Rotary engine.



A.. GLIDIE..

y ROTARY ENGINE. y APPLICATION FILED DEU. 20, 1906.

No. 847.761. 1 PATBNTED MAR. .19, 19o?,

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A, 'GLIDIEI ROTARY ENGINE.- APPLIUATION FILED DBO. ze. 190s.

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W/TNESSE Arron/Veys PATBNTED MAR. 19, 1907.

.110.847,761. r- PATENTED MAR. 19, 1,907.

A. GLIDIB.-

ROTARY ENGINE.

^ ATPLIOATION FILED 13120.26, 1906.

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tiNiTnn sTATns PATENT oTTion.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 19, 1907.

-Application filed December 26, 1906. Serial No. 349,502.

To @ZZ 'wh/Unt it may concern;

Be it known that I, ALBERT GLiDiE, a subject of the King of Norway, anda residentJ of the city or New Y'orx, borough of Manhattan, in thecounty and btate or N ew York, have invented a new and improved RotaryEngine, of which the following is a` full, clear, and exact description.

'lhis invention relates to certain improvements 4in rotary enginesadapted to be operated by steam, compressed air, or other nuid underpressure, and the object of the inveiition is to provide certainimprovements in the means for controlling the admission and exhaust ofsaidmotive nuid in order to gain the maximum eliiciency.

The invention consists in certainfeatures of construction andcombination orl parts, all of which will be fully set forth hereinafterand particularly pointed out in the claims.`

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar characters of reference indicatecorresponding parts iii all the iigures, in whichl! igure 1 is an endelevation of the engine, a portion thereof being broken away. rig. 2 isa side elevation, a portion thereof being broken away to show thethrottle-valve. Fig. 3 is a detail showing the piston, abutment, andinlet and exhaust ports. Fig. 4 is an end elevation, the valve beingremoved and the valve-chamber being shown in section. Fig. 5 is a planview of the complete engine. Fig. 6 is a transverse section talen on aplane through the controllingvalve. Fig. 7 is a plan view of a portionof the device, the superstructure being removed. liig. 8 is a detailshowing the eccentric for operating the abutment. lig. 9 is a detailshowing the reverse side of the parts illustrated in Fig. 8. Fig. 10illustrates details of the valve-operating mechanism, and Fig. 11illustrates details of "the abutment.

1n the specific embodiment of my invention which I have illustrated inthe drawings I employ a casing made up of 'two parts 10 and 11, boltedtogether and having an annular chamber 12, circular in cross-section,formed within the casing. The casing is supported by suitable standards13, resting upon a base 14, and the standards are provided withjournal-boxes 15 for supporting the main shaft 16. This shaft extendsthrough the casing centrally of the annular chamber,

and rigidly mounted uponthe shaft is a plate or wheel 17, having itsouter circumferential edge 18 extending through a slot in the innervwall of the annular chamber or cylinder 12 and serving io close thelatter. ln orderto provide a perfectly-tight joint, the Wheel 17 isprovided with annular flanges 19, spaced a short distance from theinnerusurface of the' casing, and intermediate these flanges and thecasing is provided a packing held in place by the annular packing-rings20, supported upon the cylinder, as shown in I* ig. 2.

As previously stated, the chamber or cylinder 12 is circular incross-section, and the wheel 17 extends through the casing to the innerside of the chamber. Within the chamber and rigidly secured to the wheel17 is a circular piston 21, completely closing the annular cylinder andadapted to move through said cylinder and cause the rotation of theWheel 17. rlhis piston may be of any suitable character, but ispreferably composed of a plurality of layers rigidly bolted together,one of said layers being integral With or rigidly secured to the wheel17 In order to cause the movement of the piston 21 within the cylinder12, l provide suitable inlet and exhaust ports for the motive iiuid anda suitable valve for controlling said ports.

Preferably the section 10 of the main cas'- ing is provided with anextension 22 integral therewith, and within this extension is provided acylindrical valve-chamber 23, directly above the main shaft 16. Withinthis valvechamber is located a valve 24, the shape of which is moreclearly shown in Fig. 7, and which has a passage 25 extendingtherethrough intermediate the two side Walls 26A 26. 'i'he valve issupported upon a valvestem 27, leading through a packing in the lowerside of the valve-chamber, and said valve-stem terminates in aneccentric-strap- 28, surrounding and adapted to be operated by aneccentric 29 on the shaft 16. rl'he valve-chamber 23 is provided with aninlet pipe or conduit 30 and an outlet pipe or conduit 31, while theopposite side of the valvechamber is provided with a plurality ofvopenings leading into the chamber or cylinder 12. As shown in Fig. 3,these passages are fourin number, two of them, 32 32,1eading into theVchamber or cylinder 12 at one side of ,the abutment, hereinafterreferred to, and the other two, 33 33, leading into the'cylinderor'chamber at the opposite side ofthe abi'i't-f ment. The passage 25through the valve 24.L

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, with the exhaust-.passages is of considerably greater Width at oneside than at trie other and is so formed that when rotated through aportion of a revolution the larger side of said passage remains at alltimes in communication with the inlet-pipe 30, while the smaller end ofthe passage may be brought in communication with the ports 33. As thevalve does not completely hll the valve-casing, two longitudinalpassages are formed extending trie entire length of the valve-casing,and both passages communicate at all times with the outiet-pipe 31 belowthe valve. When tne valve is rotated to bring the passage 25 incommunication with one of tne sets of ports, the other ports willcommunicate with one of these two longitudinal passages and be in freecommunication with trie outlet-pipe. By reciprocating the valve Withinthe valve-chamber the wall of the valve may be moved across the end ofthe inlet-pipe 3U and completely shut off the supply,l although withoutinterfering in any w ay During the normal operation of the engine thevalve is moved up and down in its casing once during each revolution ofthe drive-shaft 16 and o1 the piston 21. The valve is only rotated Whenit is desired to reverse the direction of rotation.

ln order to cause the reciproeation of the valve Within thevalve-casing, l provide the eccentric illustrated in llig. l0. 'l'hiseccentric is made up of three disks rigidly secured together or formedintegral. Une of these disks is round and is coiicentrically mountedupon the shaft 16, while secured to one side of this disk is a second orlarger disk 34, having a notch 35 cut in its surface adjacent one sidethereof. Upon the opposite side of the first-mentioned disk is a thirddisk 36, having a lug 37 diametrically opposed to the notcli 35 of thedisk 34. 1he valve-stein 27 carries the eccentric-strap 28, surroundingthe circular disk, and extending upward from the surface of thiseccentric-strap are two projections 39 and 40, extending in oppositedirections and having cam-surfaces. rl'he point of the projection 39normally travels upon the surface of the disk 34, while the point of theprojection 40 normally travels upon the surface of the disk 36, and thevalve stem 27 is held from rotating. As the proj ection 37 strikes thecam-surface of the projection 40 the rod and eccentric-strap 2S aremoved longitudinally and the projection 39 enters the notch 35 in thedisk 34. rPhe opening in the strap 23 is of substantially the samediameter as the circular disk of the eccentric, but is of sufficientlength to permit of the longitudinal movement of the strap as theprojection 37 strikes the cam-surface of the projection 40. lt will thusbe noted that the valve-stem is held stationary throughout the greaterportion of the revolution of the shaft 16, but is suddenly raised andagain lowered once during each revolution. By means of the improvedeccentric above described all side movement of the valve-stem 27 isprevented and the valve is positively operated at the required instant.

"t the upper side of the cylinder-casing, intermediate the valve-ports32 and 33, is located an abutment 41, capable of longitudinal movementand adapted close the cylinder or chamber 12 at this point. Upon theupper side of the casing is also provided means for guiding the abutmentin its longitudinal movement, and this means pref erably comprises acasing 42, having a packing 43 at its upper end and through which therod 44, carrying the abutment, reciproe cates. The casing 42 rigidlysupports an arm 45, having a lever 46 pivoted to the upper end thereof,and this lever is connected to the iod 44 in such a manner that when thelever 46 is raised a sin'iultaiieous movement of the rod 44 is effected.

Upon the shaft 16 l provide a second but larger eccentric 47, similar tothe eccentric 29, save as to size. The disk 36 carries a projection 37,adapted to engage with the cam-surface of the projection 40 on the ec`centric-strap 28, and the largest disk 34 is provided with a notch 35a,into which passes the projection 38L of the eccentric-strap when the rod4S is moved longitudinally thereby. r1`he two eccentrics are so locatedupon the shaft in respect to the position of the piston 2l that theabutment 41 will remain in the position indicated in Fig. 2- namely,closing the chamber 12-and the valve will remain in the positionindicated namely, permitting the motive lluid to enter the pipe 30 andpass through the passages 32 in tlie valve-chamber at one side of thepiston, while the exhaust-gases may pass out through the passages 33 andescape through the pipe 31. As the piston 21 nearly com pletes itsrevolution, or, in other words, approaches the abutment 41, theeccentric 47 operates to move the rod 48 and simultaneously the rod 44to lift the abutment out of the chamber or cylinder 12 to permit thepassage of the piston 21. Simultaneously the valve 24 is dropped toclose the inlet-port, and the inertia of the piston is sullieieiit tocarry it past the abutment to a position beyond the ports At thisinstant the abutment is dropped. to close the chamber and the valve isopened to permit the entrance of motive huid intermediate the abutmentand the piston to cause the further rotation of the latter.

ln order to reverse the engine, means are provided for rotating thevalve 24, and this means preferably comprises a rod 49, secured to thevalve 24 and extending up through a packing in the upper side of thevalve-casing. '1`his rod is provided with a lever-arm 5l), connected bya link 51 to a lever-arm 52 on a to completely y rotatably-mounted rod53. A handle 54 is rigidly secured to this rotatable rod 53, and a guide55 is secured to the superstructure of the engine to control themovement of the handle 54. With the handle in the position indicated inthe drawings thevalve will occupy the position illustrated in Fig. 6 andthe inlet-pipe 30 communicate with the inletports 32. By moving thehandle toward a horizontal position thelever-arm 52 causes the movementof the lever-arm 50 and a rotation of the valve 24 to bring theinlet-pipe 30in communication with the outlet-ports 33. The motive fluidis then delivered to the opposite side of the abutment 41 and pressureis applied to the opposite side of the pist0n 2l.

The eccentrics for operating the abutment and valve are such that it isentirely immaterial in which direction the engine is operating, as thevalve will be closed and the abutment raised when the piston reaches agiven distance upon one side of the valve and abutment and will beclosed when the piston has passed them to a given distance upon theopposite side. Their operation is reversed by a reversal of thedirection of rotation of the engine-piston.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent 1. A rotary engine, comprising a curved chamberprovided with a slot, a rotary member having a portion thereof adjacentits circumference entering and closing said slot, a piston carried bysaid rotary member and movable within said curved chamber, a flangecarried by said rotary member and substantially parallel to the wall ofthe chamber adjacent the slot but spaced from said wall, and a packingintermediate said iange and said wall and in contact with the body ofsaid rotary member.

2. A rotary engine, comprising a curved chamber provided with a slot, arotary member having a portion thereof adjacent its circumferenceentering and closing said slot, a piston carried by said rotary memberand movable within said curved chamber, a iiange carried by said rotarymember and substantially parallel to the wall of the chamber adjacentthe slot but spaced from said wall, a packing intermediate said flangeand said wall, and a packing-ring substantially L-shaped incross-section carried by the wall of said chamber and adapted to forcethe packing into engagement with the body of the rotary member.

3. A rotary engine, comprising a casing having an annular chambertherein, a piston movable in said chamber, an abutment radially movableto close said chamber, said chamber being provided with an inlet-portadjacent one side ofthe abutment and an outlet-port adjacent theopposite side, means for controlling the inlet-port, comprising areciprocating valve, means for rotating said valve to reverse theengine,and independent means for simultaneously withdrawing said abutment fromthe chamber and closing the inlet-port.

4. A rotary engine, comprising a casing having a curved chamber, a mainshaft provided with a cam, a piston movable in said chamber, an abutmentradially movable to close said chamber, said chamber being provided withan inlet-port adjacent one side of `theabutment and an outlet-portadjacent the op osite side, a reciprocating valve for contro ling saidinlet-port, a valve-stem secured to said valve and in engagement withthe cam on the main shaft, whereby said valve may be reciprocated, and asecond valve-stem secured to said valve and provided withmanually-controlled means for rotating the same, whereby the engine maybe reversed.

5. A rotary engine, comprising a curved chamber, a main shaft concentrictherewith, apiston carried by said shaft and movable insaid chamber, anabutment movable to close said chamber, said chamber having aninlet-port adjacent one side of the abutment and an outlet-port adjacentthe opposite side of said abutment, a reciprocating valve forcontrolling' said inlet-port, means for simultaneously moving saidabutment and reciprocating the said valve to control the inlet-port, avalve-stem secured to said valve, an arm secured to said valve-stem, avalvelever, and means connecting said lever to said arm, whereby uponthe movement of said lever the valve may be rotated to reverse theengine independent of the normal reciprocating movement of the valve.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.v

ALBERT GLIDIE. Witnesses z F. D. AMMEN, EVERARD B. MARsHALL.

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